PHILADELPHIA – At the Penn Lightbulb Café on Tuesday, April 17, Paul Hendrickson, a senior lecturer in the University of Pennsylvania’s English Department, will discuss his award-winning book Hemingway’s Boat.

The talk is part of the free public-lecture series that takes discussions about the arts, humanities and social sciences out of the classroom for a night on the town.

Starting at 6 p.m. at the Penn Bookstore, 36th and Walnut streets, Hendrickson will discuss his account of Ernest Hemingway's life through the story of the author’s beloved fishing boat, Pilar.  Hendrickson, a former Washington Post prize-winning feature writer, will talk about researching Hemingway's Boat and how he adapted the conventions of literary biography to write about Hemingway. 

The book, now in its seventh printing, was a New York Times and national bestseller, reached No. 3 on the London best-seller list in the U.K. edition, is being translated into Russian and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. 

Hendrickson, who came to Penn in 1998, teaches popular workshops on nonfiction writing. He is the author of Seminary; Looking for the Light: The Hidden Life and Art of Marion Post Wolcott, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Living and the Dead: Robert  McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War, a finalist for the National Book Award; and Sons of Mississippi, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.        

Previous Lightbulb Cafes have featured Penn religious-studies professor Anthea Butler interpreting politicians' religious rhetoric, sociology professor David Gibson presenting a behind-the-scenes look at the Cuban missile crisis talks and history-of-art professor Michael Meister discussing the difficulties cultural-monuments researchers encounter in war-torn Pakistan.

Seating is limited. Reservations are encouraged by contacting Gina Bryan at 215-898-8721 or bryangm@upenn.edu.